Why I Became a Nurse

At the risk of sounding cheesy and not meaning to depress everyone, these are the reasons I became a nurse...to hold the hand of a dying woman as she came to that realization and I along with her doctor had to break the news to her and her husband and daughter. To fan the face of a man who is scared to death of what may come next-surgery or go home. To comfort the families of my patients who in many cases are even more afraid of what is to come. To be more to my patients that I take care of every night than that "ghost" who popped in our 4:00 in the morning to give them their pain medications.

I took care of a patient today whose body is riddled with cancer--in her thyroid, her esophagus, and her liver. She is juandiced and her liver isn't working anymore. Now, she has an infection in her colon and lungs. She is coming around to dealing with this, her family, however, is completely in denial of everything that is going on. He is convinced that she will get out of the bed and breathe on her own and walk away and get chemo thereapy and everything will be peaches and cream. Unfortuanetly, the heartbreaking part of my job is that i had to discuss with her family and her that the treatments we are giving her are basicaly futile- they are doing her no good. Only harming her further. That there is nothing I, or the doctors can give her that will make all of this horrible, awful stuff go away. And even worse, that she won't be physically strong enough to make the trip back to Philadelphia where her family is.

This isn't the part I love. That part was when I was able to just stand there and hold her hand and rub her shoulders and let her cry. To tell her that it's okay to cry and be angry. To be able to tell her, along with her doctor (whom I adore) that there are things that we can do to make her more comfortable. To be so involved with her care and to know that they trust us to inform them of this horrible news.

I love my new job. I love being able to be so involved with their care and knowing so much about them. Anyways, that was my week. I hope ya'll had a good week.